Occupiers removing roadblocks near administrative border with Crimea

Border guards of the Russian Federation remove roadblocks on the administrative border with the occupied Crimea, which were installed in front of exit and entry checkpoints, Oleh Slobodyan the Speaker of the State Border Service of Ukraine (SBSU) reported.

He noted that the Russian border guards remove roadblocks that are located near the administrative border with the mainland of Ukraine, while the checkpoints "are on the contrary strengthened".

Slobodyan said that the roadblocks on Kalanchak and Chaplynka checkpointswere dismantled at the beginning of the year, and opposite Chongar the roadblock is being dismantled from February 12.

“They bring the security system to the standards that they have on other parts of the border.”

The speaker of the State Border Service of Ukraine added that roadblocks also exist at the Ukrainian side that are not to be disassembled.

Reference: In January 2018, 150,000 people and 23,000 vehicles crossed the administrative border from the temporarily occupied Crimea in both directions. Comparing with the same period last year, no significant changes have been observed in term of the intensity of passenger traffic through the checkpoints Kalanchak, Chongar and Chaplyanka.

Since January 1, 2018, Ukraine has introduced biometric control for citizens from 70 so-called "risky" countries, in particular, from the Russian Federation. The biometric control is not applied to Crimeans, because Ukraine continues to consider them as its citizens (despite the fact that the Crimeans were forcibly given passports of the Russian Federation). For Ukrainian citizens, living in the occupied Crimea, the crossing of the administrative border is still possible upon production of a Ukrainian passport (paper-based of old form or biometric).